Show HN: Built A Better Shopify (that's not a rip off)(gitpage.site)
gitpage.site
Show HN: Built A Better Shopify (that's not a rip off)
https://www.gitpage.site/landing-store
Shopify Charge $1,000 to host your store and if you cancel all your hard work is gone.... This is a better way. Free hosting, No Subscription, AI Store Build, Auto deploy. Let me now what you think
9 comments
This doesn't seem to be a Shopify competitor in any reasonable way, I can say that because I used to work for a competitor before we were bought by a larger company.
The traditional development time that you list on the page is not involved when building a basic Shopify site. There's online payment integrations, localisation support, shipping integrations etc.
The traditional development time that you list on the page is not involved when building a basic Shopify site. There's online payment integrations, localisation support, shipping integrations etc.
This looks cool and useful, but I think you're advertising it from the wrong angle. Here's some unsolicited advice which you can take or ignore. Source: Former ecommerce developer at a fancy agency that worked for companies of vastly differing sizes.
The pain point for Shopify, in my experience hasn't been price. If you're someone who can afford to spend 360 development hours making a storefront, either you're someone who can afford to pay Shopify's prices or you're budgeting your time horribly. You don't spend that time or money if you're looking for a landing page, you spend it because you're a brand with specific visual and functionality requirements. This isn't the segment you're in competition with because this segment doesn't care about spending a thousand dollars, and they're always going to go with a tested, mature technology, which in ecommerce might be Shopify.
The issue those companies have with Shopify is that their requirements are often too specific for what Shopify will let them do, ie, you can't change the selling logic to accommodate their business rules. I saw this with clients who wanted to do things like 1. Sell bundles 2. Sell subscriptions 3. Have complicated sales 4. Have conditional shipping logic for different locations 5. Have conditional content by location for regulatory purposes. You're not competing with the people looking to answer that question because the purpose of your tool is to do the work for you. You're never going to be able to satisfy these complex requirements when the purpose of the tool is to minimize complexity.
Stepping back. Who is your target audience? Someone who cares about No Code? Is that person comfortable using Github Pages? Do they know what Git is? Do they know what 'deployment' is, in this context? Do they know what SSL or CDN means? I think the answer to all of those questions, from experience working in the ecommerce world, is no.
Shopify is not the right ecommerce platform to compare yourself to. If your technologically capable enough to use GitPage and $1000 for Shopify is too much for your business, you're not looking at Shopify to begin with.
Do some research and look at what the user that is technologically capable enough to use this tool would reach for besides Shopify. It might be a free product. Why is your free product better than their free product? I can think of 100 reasons GitPage is better than Magento. Sell a user on that. Magento and WooCommerce would be good places to start.
The pain point for Shopify, in my experience hasn't been price. If you're someone who can afford to spend 360 development hours making a storefront, either you're someone who can afford to pay Shopify's prices or you're budgeting your time horribly. You don't spend that time or money if you're looking for a landing page, you spend it because you're a brand with specific visual and functionality requirements. This isn't the segment you're in competition with because this segment doesn't care about spending a thousand dollars, and they're always going to go with a tested, mature technology, which in ecommerce might be Shopify.
The issue those companies have with Shopify is that their requirements are often too specific for what Shopify will let them do, ie, you can't change the selling logic to accommodate their business rules. I saw this with clients who wanted to do things like 1. Sell bundles 2. Sell subscriptions 3. Have complicated sales 4. Have conditional shipping logic for different locations 5. Have conditional content by location for regulatory purposes. You're not competing with the people looking to answer that question because the purpose of your tool is to do the work for you. You're never going to be able to satisfy these complex requirements when the purpose of the tool is to minimize complexity.
Stepping back. Who is your target audience? Someone who cares about No Code? Is that person comfortable using Github Pages? Do they know what Git is? Do they know what 'deployment' is, in this context? Do they know what SSL or CDN means? I think the answer to all of those questions, from experience working in the ecommerce world, is no.
Shopify is not the right ecommerce platform to compare yourself to. If your technologically capable enough to use GitPage and $1000 for Shopify is too much for your business, you're not looking at Shopify to begin with.
Do some research and look at what the user that is technologically capable enough to use this tool would reach for besides Shopify. It might be a free product. Why is your free product better than their free product? I can think of 100 reasons GitPage is better than Magento. Sell a user on that. Magento and WooCommerce would be good places to start.
Very interesting. Shopify also provides a backend and APIs associated with it. Is that included ? Also how does it compare to WooCommerce ?
Since when is shopify charging 1000 dollars?
They have a big jump to the most expensive subscription. Gives you automatic freight prices asf
12 months hosting on Shopify on recommended plan is $1,000. It’s very expensive, they own the code. You stop paying and your store is gone.
You're not wrong about the pricing but based on what you see here https://www.shopify.com/pricing?country=us&lang=en
The $1000 plan covers a lot more than just an online store with a code. There's also a POS included, integrations with third party payment providers etc. Not everyone needs the most expensive plan. Also, the value of a Shopify subscription is not in the code to host an online shop but the ease of use with which someone can sell their wares online.
Yes, they do own the code but the question for most people using it is, do we need to own that code? Do we need to maintain it? or can we just focus on selling?
If someone stops paying Shopify, they still own the products that they were selling online, they can import an excel sheet on some another online store, upload the images and start selling. As long as they own the domain, selling on another platform would be easy.
The $1000 plan covers a lot more than just an online store with a code. There's also a POS included, integrations with third party payment providers etc. Not everyone needs the most expensive plan. Also, the value of a Shopify subscription is not in the code to host an online shop but the ease of use with which someone can sell their wares online.
Yes, they do own the code but the question for most people using it is, do we need to own that code? Do we need to maintain it? or can we just focus on selling?
If someone stops paying Shopify, they still own the products that they were selling online, they can import an excel sheet on some another online store, upload the images and start selling. As long as they own the domain, selling on another platform would be easy.